Lessons Learned and Biggest Regret After 5 Years Full-Time RV Living

hey everyone its Shaun and Julie from trickeries travels and we want to share with you in this video top five lessons learned in our biggest regret after five years of RV travel I can't believe it's been that long so we'll cover our five tips or things we've learned along the way and our biggest regret which we both agree on by far is our biggest regret so the first lesson is to find your travel style yeah and what we mean by that really is do you find out what works best for you and don't worry about anyone else and we're talking about things like how far do you want to drive in a day or how long do you want to stay in one location and even what kind of places you'd like to stay at so we'll give you an example for us we were trying to be like everyone else and hitting like a million different places in a month and only staying a place maybe a week at the most and we were exhausted yeah we definitely did not like that travel style so what we had always heard from people when we were researching this lifestyle is this 3-3-3 rule like don't travel more than three hours stop by three o'clock and stay at least three days but the problem is that would take us a long time to ever get anywhere yeah so we started traveling a lot farther in one day and we actually prefer that yeah you know I don't mind driving you know 1215 hours to get to where our location is just so we can be there and then we stay for like a month or so and he doesn't mean 12 min 15 hours in one day we'll usually split that into two days but we typically have like eight to 10 hour driving days yeah and that's what works for us and we found that we don't like the quick thing somewhere a week we would rather stay somewhere a month and get to know the area and of course we're still working so that gives us plenty of time for sightseeing and getting out on the town so to speak and then the last part of that finding your travel style is finding what types of places you like to stay at in our first four years we were pretty much exclusively campgrounds and over the last year we have started to dabble in a little boondocking and we have found that we enjoy boondocking yep but I'm never gonna be a full-time Boone docker and so the moral of that story is to find what works best for you and don't let anyone tell you that there's a right or wrong way to do it I mean sometimes we'll share like this amazing RV Resort that we love on social media and you know everyone's a critic on social media right and people say oh that's a waste of money you should boondock out in the middle of nowhere and enjoy these amazing views and we like that sometimes but it's just not us for the majority of the time also like Sean said we're working and I'm sorry but we've been places where people have put reviews that you get pretty good internet or cell signals so that you can get internet and no no no we have to be in urban areas to make it work for us but you do you that's the lesson and lesson number two is I think everybody knows this that's been our being more than a couple of weeks RVs require a lot of upkeep so you constantly got to do maintenance and that's part of the lifestyle so we're not saying that it's bad or that it's good we're just saying it's something that you got to do and so if you're not into doing that you'll spend a lot of money at repair facilities so it's good to be handy and it's good to take on the challenge of learning how to do all the maintenance yourselves and enjoying that part of RV and just to give you a few examples of what we mean just in the last year we actually just in the last week we got all new truck tires we got them what three years ago so if you're putting on a lot of miles on your RV or your tow vehicle you're gonna need tires more often than you would think in the last year we had to get two new RV tires yeah what else well right now we have a broken refrigerator and we have our new arctic fox 27 5l and the refrigerator was new when it was put in and the cooling unit went out on it and so we lost our groceries and I tried to repair it I changed the circuit boards I I did everything the forum said to do and sadly it's the cooling unit and I couldn't get the cooling unit under warranty I had to go through an RV repair facility so now we're waiting on that process to get that done so that was one big thing and then when we got our new RV we took out all of our old our lithium batteries from our old RV and our inverter and we did all the solar and everything on this RV which was quite a bit of maintenance we've installed new outlets for USB and 12-volt plugs so a lot of maintenance yeah and if you're not handy or don't want to learn how to do it on your own you're gonna have to look obviously for someone else to do it and that leaves you a couple options one you can take it to a repair place and leave it I don't think we've ever had a good experience with that have we no because every time you take it and leave it even if you tell them that you live in it they always take longer than they say there every RV even the same make and model has different components in it there's one thing we learned and so they would wait until you get there to even order the parts even if you have an appointment like we did one time we had an appointment we sent them the part numbers and still they waited till we showed up to even order the parts they order them through the manufacturer of the RV but then the manufacturer of the RV has to order them from the component facture so it can be a pretty lengthy process so what we do now like what the refrigerator that Shawn can't fix is we're having a mobile repairmen and so even though it's covered under warranty the mobile visit is not so you just got a budget a little extra this one particular place it's a hundred dollars out of pocket that we'll have to pay for the luxury of getting to stay in our own RV at the campgrounds while we're waiting for the part to be ordered and while we're waiting for the repair and the funny thing is this particular shop that we're going through is not really a mobile repair shop but if you talk nice to people and and treat them well they might be nice to you and come out and come to you instead of bringing your RV to them when we told the people that manage the campground here that this person was going to be coming out they said wow they never come out to fix our v's they always make you go to them but treat people like you want to be treated and that will certainly go a long way when it comes to maintenance on your RV and one last thing on the maintenance is don't be mad when something breaks I mean it's a fact of life it's part of the RV journey so just take it in stride and and do what you can to fix it and there's three things that can help you with that get the extended warranty even if you're buying used you can get an extended warranty have roadside assistance we've used that as well yeah and have an emergency fund you're gonna need it a maintenance fund we we have a maintenance fund if we don't have any items that need fixing in a month we put a certain amount in there and we keep building it up until something happens like now that we need it for we got the new tires and out of pocket on the mobile repair tech and then next month hopefully we'll be able to build that maintenance fund back up and those three things kind of help take some of that pressure off and one last thing I promise this is the last thing on maintenance is don't trust what people write about things like roadside assistance because for an example we were just traveling on Labor Day a few weeks ago we were in Texas and we were going through a small town and I actually got a flat tire my tire pressure monitor let us know right away that it was going flat and we were able to pull over in a rest area and we called Good Sam roadside assistance and you always see bad things on the forums about Road about Good Sam and not showing up or or you know do damage our yeah or causing damage to your vehicle we called them like I said it was a Labor Day holiday they were there within 30 minutes and fixed our flat for us and we were on our way and so if I would have just trusted what was on social media I would have never purchased the Good Sam roadside assistance but in this case it turned out to be a good thing and it was a really positive experience so so before you take someone's word for it maybe experience it yourself try it yourself and you may be surprised you know there's there's good and bad in everything and one bad experience for someone shouldn't stop you from from trying it yourself good point so the next lesson is to be flexible I think actually we should have led with that huh I mean that that really is so important because life happens things happen when you're in an RV life happens just like if you're in a traditional home and so you just have to kind of roll with the punches I'm a planner and I actually we're in September right now and we already have reservations booked through next April that's how much of a planner I am but I only make reservations at places that don't charge me any more than $15 to cancel that reservation or make a change and the reason why I do that is because things happen and we have had to make changes numerous times and even though it takes me a little more work to go back and make new reservations at least I know it's not really going to be a financial burden one example was a couple years ago we were on our way to Florida Keys and a hurricane came along we had to evacuate all the way from southern Florida we tried to stop in Georgia and it was going to be bad there too so we ended up in Tennessee that it cost us a lot more money like in gas but it also totally changed all of our reservations and then just recently we were like Julie said in the beginning we were trying to hit all these places over the summer and we kind of got burned out about halfway through with all the travel so we went in Reese redid all those plans and those reservations were all changed so we could get back to our comfortable travel style so it's it's easy to to change if you plan ahead and if you're okay with flexibility it really works out in this lifestyle lesson number four for us is you don't need as much room as you think yeah we so we first started RVing right when we became empty nesters so we had had we raised three sons and we had a four-bedroom house with a basement and that formal living room and you know all that so when we were looking at our v's we ended up getting a 44 foot toy hauler and it seemed small to us believe it or not it seemed really small like whoa how am I going to live in this tiny space but after just a couple years of that we realized we did not need even that much space yeah and if you go super big it's really a pain in the ass to get into some RV parks particularly national parks and some state parks and a lot of the RV parks out west they're not really built for those big rigs so if you can fit into something smaller and you're comfortable then try it out you know we really enjoy we're now in a 29 foot something arctic fox and we love it it's it's a lot smaller lots of people nowadays are downsizing to smaller RVs and I haven't heard many complaints that it's too small most people are happy in them so so you don't need as much room as your thing and I would also say that it's easier to start small and go larger than the other way around just because of price number one I mean I would say even when you're first starting out maybe even try to get as used as you can think you can live with and then as small as you can think you can live with and then that way it's easier to upgrade for us we went with this massive large RV we bought it new so two years in we sold our toy we knew we didn't want that much space but it was just gonna cost us too much money yeah in depreciation for us to be willing to downsize at that point so we lived with it for almost three more years while we aggressively worked to pay it off so that then we could downsize into a different RV yeah and we'll talk about that a little bit later in the video but yeah definitely you may think you need a lot of space but when you're traveling all the time and and spending a lot of time outside instead of in department stores and Walmart you can you don't need as much space as you think the last lesson we've learned is that it doesn't have to be forever we all go through phases in life and we just happen to be right now in the RV travel phase but we know that that's not going to last for the rest of our lives so go into it with a mindset that it doesn't have to be a forever decision yeah we always say that we don't make forever decisions we make for now decisions we make decisions based on what's happening in our life at the time and that's kind of how we've done things pretty much for the last five years even our family knows like they weren't even surprised when we told them we were moving into an RV even though we didn't know any one else who had done that it didn't seem totally radical to them because they know that we were always trying new things yeah and so they were just like oh yeah they're just trying something new and we kind of went into it that way and I think it's helped us enjoy it more because it hasn't been like this forever thing like it has to you know you feel like locked into it or something it's just been like we'll do this as long as we feel like doing this and that kind of makes it more enjoyable for us anyway yeah we never really I don't think expected it to be five years no I totally didn't expect it to be five is almost the longest we've ever lived in something well in our last our because Sean told you we've only had this RV for six months so we had the other one for four and a half years that actually was the law the home that we lived in the longest because we were in the military and so we had always moved every three years so that four and a half years that home that our be that was the longest home the longest time we had ever lived in a single home yep yep so now for the biggest regret and we've kind of hinted about it all through these five lessons and really it was not starting out this RV journey debt-free we were really so excited to get into the RV that we just went out and financed one and it wasn't only the RV it was really kind of our mindset about money and debt at the time we were kind of in this kind of typical you buy a car you finance it you buy a house you finance it you buy an RV you know you finance it and it wasn't until I think three years into our journey into our full time RV journey that we read a book called the total money makeover by Dave Ramsey and it completely changed our worldview didn't yeah it was really tough well it was it was a big oak I openin because we realized that you know we owed a lot of money not even just the RV we had a consumer debt and we really had to change we decided that we wanted to be debt-free I mean we thought of our income and how much money we made and then we thought what if all that income went to us yeah instead of the bank or you know the whoever holds the note on your different things and we thought what if that money went to us Wow you know that that could be life-changing and so we made a budget and adhered to Dave Ramsey's baby steps he calls them but it was hard sometimes yeah but we knew that like we said it's it's not a forever decision living in this RV so and sometimes things break in the RV and you know sometimes you got to be flexible and plans change that may cost you money so having no debt allows us to be a little more comfortable in those decisions and we know now that if we did have to leave the RV tomorrow we could at least afford to live somewhere and not have to worry about it so if we would have went into the RV journey debt-free it would have been a lot more fun in the beginning I think yeah absolutely it definitely helps with all the other lessons that we talked about it just gives you a little more financial security and it makes like you said it takes some of the stress off of it and then also it gives you the ability to make changes like when we decided that we didn't want that other RV that larger RV anymore we wanted to downsize we had already made the commitment to be debt-free so there was no way that we could get rid of that RV and get into a new one because we still owed on the other one so we just had to keep at it and stick with our B even though we knew we didn't want to anymore we up for two years from that point we stuck with it and aggressively paid it off and then when we finally were able to be debt-free we saved up enough money to get this new RV so that was kind of a little bit of a sacrifice of waiting the amount of time but I feel so glad we did it yeah and it we're not saying by any means that it was this casual thing to become debt-free we really sacrificed and suffered and pay I mean we worked a lot of hours to to be able to pay everything off and start building up a savings so and I would say that we sacrifice but not suffered but he's probably saying suffer because he had you hear me complaining some days I would want to revert to my old ways and you know just buy something on credit and I'd be like darn that Dave Ramsey he's really alive so Sean was probably suffering over some of my whining but really most of the time it was really just more of prioritization you know and really saying is this really that important to me whatever it was that I wanted to spend money on was that is this really so important that it's worth me not meeting my goals because of it and if we could just stick with that path for two years we knew it could really change our lives and so we did and luckily because we were both committed to it like he said we agreed we were able to encourage each others when we had those moments where we wanted to get off of the wagon so even if you're currently are being now and have debt it's worth taking the step to get out of debt like Julie said we didn't do it for the first two and a half years I think and then we started and once you get you know the hardest part is getting started and once you get started it's pretty easy to do and it's just sometimes it seems like a very long road but if you stick to it it it comes out in the end and we definitely feel much better about our being and being able to enjoy the time we have on the road without having to worry about credit and all the bills that we had before so it's definitely our biggest regret and we definitely encourage others to take that step and whether you're thinking about our being or you are being or you're not even thinking about our being you're watching this video because we're so good-looking it's definitely the right step to take and and get out of debt and it makes your life so much better so we hope that these lessons that we learned along the way can help you a little bit in your RV journey and if you ever have any questions feel free to ask them whether it's here in the YouTube comments or you can go over to our website chicory travels calm there's a little contact me icon up in the top and it'll send us an email we answer every single one of those and also if you want to learn more about our being check out my podcast which is beyond the wheel podcast and you can get it on any of the major podcast platforms or you can go to the website beyond the wheel podcast com and me and my buddy Kenny from moving forward adventures host that podcast and we have some really good guests on there and it's all dealing with RV business so until we see you on the road safe travels you [Music]

Channel: Chickery's Travels

Views: 74,270

Rating: 4.9246073 out of 5

Keywords: rv living, full time rv living, rv living full time, rv full time living, full-time rv living, rv lessons, full-time rv regret, full time rv, rv lifestyle full time, rv lessons learned, full-time rvers, full time rv living in a fifth wheel, full time rv regrets, rv fulltime, full-time rv, full-time rving, rv life, rv travel, rv lifestyle, 5 rv lessons we learned the hard way

Id: liP_JTdFL-k

Length: 23min 40sec (1420 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019